Zimbra Vs. Lotus Domino

Competitor Profile: Lotus Domino

Overview Lotus Domino is second in market share among enterprise messaging vendors, with ~25% share of corporate mailboxes (Radicati). Although Notes/Domino remains a functionally rich, stable, secure and scalable commercial e-mail system, clouds are appearing on the horizon. The large Domino base is restless, and many organizations are contemplating a move. Rather than focus on the needs of the installed base, IBM has introduced an alternative e-mail product called Workplace Messaging, which is not ready for large-scale deployment. This split strategy for collaboration solution is resulting in confusion both internally and among the customer base as the roadmap of the Lotus Domino solution at this point is unclear.

Domino also has little credibility in many of the markets Zimbra serves well. For example, for small and medium enterprises, and educational and government organizations, Domino is a poor solution due to its complexity and high cost structure (see pricing info below). In addition, Domino lacks features required by HSP customers like domain management and multi-tenancy.

Pricing IBM provides customers three options to license Lotus Domino collaboration solution. Enterprises and other organizations with less than 1,000 users can avail of the “Express Edition” which includes license to use the server and one of the possible client accesses (Lotus Notes, Web Access, Outlook or POP3/IMAP4). For organizations larger than 1,000 users, IBM offers the “Enterprise Server Edition” - a separate server license based on total processor value units and client license based on number of users. IBM licenses the “Utility Server” based on the Processor Value Unit (PVU).

Enterprise List Pricing Collaboration Express Edition Enterprise Server Edition (< 1,000 users) (> 1,000 users) Server $137/user + $25.75/user* $38.25/PVU + $206/PVU* Client (Includes any one client software/access - Notes, $144/user (Notes) or $112/user (Web Access) Web, Outlook, POP/IMAP) Hardware Not included Not included Support Included Included * Utility Server (Express) license for integrating 3rd party applications

• Above pricing does not include optional components like AS/AV

Key Zimbra Positioning vs Lotus Domino

• Openness. Zimbra is open source, has open bi-directional web interfaces, and broadly supports open web and collaboration protocols. This provides full customer investment protection and enables efficient product extension, customization, and integration. Conversely, Lotus Domino is closed source, has proprietary interfaces, and lacks support for open protocols like iCal, SOAP, REST, etc. This allows IBM to retain significant control over the customer experience, creates substantial reliance on IBM for maintenance and support, and greatly reduces opportunities for Domino customers to connect external applications and content via standards based interfaces.

• Flexibility. Zimbra enables comprehensive collaboration across diverse IT environments, seamlessly interoperating with customers’ platforms, clients, and infrastructure of choice. In contrast, for broader collaboration, Lotus Domino is closely bound to the IBM family of products -- including Lotus Notes, Lotus Workflow, and Lotus Mobile Connect -- and customers are often forced to use these or other IBM products in order to have a desirable or compatible experience.

Competitor Profile: Lotus Domino

• Modern collaboration architecture. Zimbra was designed from scratch to address modern collaboration demands, including consolidated and scalable server-side components for handling large systems and mailboxes (integrated AS/AV, multitenancy, archiving, indexing/search, etc.), comprehensive web services interfaces for bi-directional application integration, and broad open protocol support for platform-agnostic user productivity. Conversely, the core Lotus Domino “kernel” was architected in the early 1990’s, and hence not designed for today’s scaling requirements (as indicated by IBM’s choice of introducing Workplace), server-side feature demands, or the need for seamless integration and compatibility.

Zimbra Responses to Lotus Domino Positioning

• “Lotus Domino has been around for long and hence a safe product choice.”

Zimbra response: Because it is a closed/proprietary solution, Domino creates inherent customer risks relative to the investment protection that Zimbra provides (much like Linux and Apache have done in their respective markets) as a leading open source solution. Zimbra offers a modern feature set and architecture, in line with the most recent collaboration demands, and has consequently experienced rapid adoption from organizations and service providers (across verticals and geographies) seeking an innovative and cost-effective solution.

• “Lotus Domino is the best way to leverage the IBM product family, which provides everything customers need.”

Zimbra response: Domino naturally integrates well with other IBM products, and IBM has an understandable incentive to encourage other IBM products in addition to Domino. However, Domino often presents usability/compatibility issues in environments with non-IBM components, greatly reducing customer flexibility. In addition, not only are there proven alternatives to IBM products today (in many cases offering preferred functionality in a lower cost, non-proprietary fashion), increasing diversity in IT environments often means that organizations cannot dictate that IBM products are in all places at all times, even if that is their preference. Zimbra provides an open solution across diverse, platform-agnostic environments, including seamless interoperability in environments where IBM products are used.

• “Domino has the most comprehensive feature set available today.”

Zimbra response: Domino has been developed over the last 10+ years, contributing to its available feature set. However, Domino’s older core architecture, proprietary software model, and tight dependency on other Domino products prevents IBM from delivering new features at a rapid pace today. Zimbra was designed from scratch with a modern architecture, feature set, and software development approach (open source), enabling much faster ongoing cycles of innovation and feature delivery. The needs of the modern collaboration environments surrounding sharing with both private and public users and groups, integrated indexing/search, server-side aggregation of multiple personal and corporate accounts.

Competitor Profile: Lotus Domino

Product Comparison Matrix

Category Feature Zimbra Lotus Domino 6.5 Rich, cross-browser web interface Yes Yes Web mash-ups + on-demand interaction w/external content Yes No Conversations Yes No Tags/Categories Yes No Group/resource scheduling Yes Yes Contacts/calendar sharing Yes No Web-based Subscribe to RSS/ATOM feeds Yes No Collaboration and Native VOIP integration Yes No Productivity HTML views of attachments Yes No Rich web document authoring Yes Yes File/document sharing Yes No Keyboard navigation/shortcuts Yes No Publish/subscribe content outside domain Yes No Comprehensive server-side indexing/search Yes Yes Attachment contents indexing/search Yes No Custom content object indexing/search Yes No Native over-the-air sync for mail, contacts, calendar Yes Yes (requires Lotus Mobile Connect) Mobility and Client Over-the-air sync to BlackBerry devices Yes Yes Compatibility Outlook/MAPI over HTTP/S Yes Unknown Outlook cached mode Yes Unknown Outlook delegated access Yes Unknown Mac desktop client support Yes Not in 6.5. Lotus Notes 7.0.2 is certified on Mac Web-based administration Yes Limited Comprehensive command line administration tools Yes Yes Multiple domains + domain-level administration/delegation Yes Yes Integrated Anti-Spam/Anti-Virus Yes No Clustering/High-Availability Yes Yes Administration & Online mailbox-level backup/restore/move Yes Yes Total Cost of Hierarchical storage management Yes Yes Ownership Instant attachment conversion to HTML Yes No Open source code Yes No Comprehensive web service interfaces Yes Limited Domain-specific branding and themes Yes Yes Linux/Mac server support Yes Yes Active Directory integration Yes Yes